The US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has of late been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, has for years funneled money to terrorist entities in the Palestinian-controlled territories, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday, citing several former and current US officials who have worked with the agency.
According to the report, the officials fought with the agency over funding for groups that worked to undermine Israel or maintained ties to terror organizations and the organization would work to conceal how taxpayer funds were spent.
The report mentions how in November 2022, USAID granted $100,000 to an organization led by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just six days before Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on Israel, USAID gave $900,000 "to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh."
The report also notes that the Biden-era administrator of the agency, Samantha Power, actively fought pro-Israel policymaking at the State Department and that USAID staffers even recently urged the Biden administration to halt military funding for Israel.
One State Department official told the Free Beacon: "They weren't even in line with some of the Biden administration's policies. It's more than just problematic grants to anti-Israel organizations. It's also their role in the internal approval processes and statements within the administration. There's an entire bureaucratic process they're a part of. They carry out their obstructionist ideology on that front as well."
US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) confirmed the report, in which he was also quoted, writing on X: "The full story of USAID funding Hamas is vast, and much of it was done in secret. Before and after October 7, USAID flowed uncountable hundreds of millions of dollars toward Hamas which enabled it to launch the attack and keep battling Israel afterward.
The Senator continued: "They lied about the nature of that aid in public databases, refused to disclose what groups were getting the money, and gave tens of millions in American cash to be distributed without American supervision.
"They internally admitted the aid would benefit Hamas, and even exempted themselves from anti-terrorism laws, but in public issued denials."
Cruz added: "For all four years of the Biden administration, I prevented them from confirming a Middle East administrator because they wouldn’t acknowledge what they were doing because continuing their secret pro-Hamas programs was more important to them."
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